Lists Galore? No, just one real big one.

Hey, Zilla - this one made me think of ya.



Haven't been big on the whole Civil War signature image things, but if I were gonna use one, it'd be this. Frankie is awesome. One of the best origin stories in modern comics... "I did it myself!"

*****

Man, I wish I had a scanner. 'Cause it's New Comics Day and Jeremiah Harm #3 is coming out, and Rael Lyra's artwork - a big selling point for the series from issue #1 - really takes a leap and a bound here.



Lyra's style - something that'd fit pretty well in the Humanoids set - gets a chance to up the ante, y'see, as the script here calls for some really insane ultraviolence. Actually, the scripting in general takes a step up here, at least as I read it. The characterizations and plotting seem stronger and more natural to the book - it's funny, because the writing is becoming a selling point just as the art is getting strong enough that it's not even necessary as a selling point.

War of the Worlds: Second Wave is still my favorite Boom! Studios series, but with this issue Jeremiah Harm makes a huge jump forward. Actually, they're a pretty smart pair of masthead books; they kinda pull a yin and yang thing on each other. Each book fills in the nooks and crannies left by the other, and taken together I think they paint a pretty brilliant picture of the kind of comics Boom! aims to publish. It's exciting, 'cause they're really energetic comics.

(There's an interview with Lyra, and some artwork, over at Comicon, by the by.)

*****

James Sime has a whoppin' 30 pages of AiT's upcoming Shatter collection, along with a full treatise on why the book matters. Between that and Fossen's love for the book, there's a lot of enthusiasm spreading for this puppy...

*****

Some advance notice on upcoming Vertigo trades over at Silver Bullet. I'm happy to see Denise Mina's opening arc on Hellblazer collected so quickly, but it also leaves me wondering if they're continuing to collect Mike Carey's awesome run. I'm juiced to know I'll be able to finish The Losers in September, and I'll be using the cheap $10-for-five-issues trades to check in on Loveless and The Exterminators.

A No-Prize for whoever can figure out how the number ten relates to the subtitle of the tenth 100 Bullets trade: "Decayed".

Actually, I just figured it out.

I love this book.

*****

Solicits are up all around, for Marvel, DC, Image.

Hmm:

I didn't realize Peter David was writing Marvel Adventures: Spiderman. Is it just issue #18? I could see him writing a could kiddie comic. Might be worth a look.

Of course, Ultimate Fantastic Four #33 marks (together with Annual #2) the start of Mike Carey's run on the book, which, as mentioned several times, I'm all cross-legged over.

I'm curious about the trade collection for Straczynski's Book of Lost Souls. When JMS is at the top of his game - Supreme Power, Midnight Nation - I enjoy his stuff, but his recent runs on Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four have left me pretty sour. Anybody wanna weigh in on this one?

Heard a lot of awesome things about Matt Wagner's Batman and the Monster Men mini, which, it seems, picks up after Miller's Year One classic and gives us Batman's first encounter with "super-powered villains." So I'll definitely pick up the trade collection, and pending my read of that, might even jump on board the follow-up: Batman and the Mad Monk.

Ooh, Peter Milligan on JLA Classified... don't know whether to be excited or depressed. Hard to tell with him these days, isn't it? I like Carlos D'Anda's artwork, but I don't know nearly enough about the DCU to guess whether Kid Amazo is a good fit for a Milligan character. Graeme?

Brendan McCarthy closes out the generally-excellent Solo series, and promises to do it with a bang. With a cover like that, it's hard to argue.



Ennis and Darick Robertson bring The Boys, that new 60-issue WildStorm series that Ennis keeps telling us will "Out-Preacher Preacher", which of course makes us all nervous. When he's on-point, Ennis is one of the best two or three guys writing comics today. When he's lost up his own ass, he's nearly unbearable. It's worth it to me to try a few issues and find out.

Winter Men finally returns with the solicit for issue five. Good news. 'Cept, I don't remember what's going on or who anybody is. When you've got a dense book like that, kids, with lots of subtleties and sly character developments, you've gotta keep things fresh in your reader's minds. I'll still try to read this, 'cause it's been really good so far.

As mentioned Monday, Rick Remender joins with new regular artist Nick Stakal for the second major arc of Strange Girl, which I think has really developed as a book. Felt kinda shaky about it for a few issues, especially in comparison to Fear Agent (still my favorite Remender book for the moment), but it's really coming into its own lately. So Stakal's debut on issue #10 should be a great spot for folks to jump on the book.

We're also looking at the last issue of Sea of Red, which Remender explained at MW: "When we got to the plot for #13 we all realized it was a perfect place to end it. Sales are great and the book is loved so we're going to go out on a high note. Issues 10-13 are the best of the series and the end will wrap everything up."

I guess I may as well just pull-list the new Negative Burn run. Issue #4 promises more of Evan Dorkin's Milk & Cheese, which is an auto-sell, so I guess it's time to stop farting around.